Man Shows Off OnStar System To Girlfriend - Arrested For Cocaine

[matcom]

<snip>

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. --A man showing off his OnStar system in his Cadillac Escalade found out the system worked too well. Ralph A. Gomez, 38, was being held Wednesday on $15,000 bond on charges of possession of an illegal narcotic within 1,000 feet of a church and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Gomez was showing off his OnStar system to his girlfriend, but the volume was set so low that he couldn't hear the OnStar operator. OnStar comes on many new General Motors vehicles and allows a customer to contact an OnStar representative in an emergency or to get directions.

If there is no response, OnStar contacts police.

That's what happened with Gomez on Friday night, Tom Clements, a spokesman for the St. Augustine Police Department, said Wednesday.

When police located Gomez' car, they determined there was no problem. But Clements said cocaine was clearly visible on the car's center console.

In addition to seizing $1,900 in the case, the Cadillac equipped with the OnStar system was also seized, Clements said.

There was no information available from Clements or the jail on whether Gomez has a lawyer.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/03/01/fla_man_showing_off_his_onstar_arrested?mode=PF

[bridgit]

1. that doesn't make any sense; the on-star operator heard them what? chopping

lines within what she had on her screen as 'a church', but the volume was so low the knucklehead couldn't hear her saying, "you sir are chopping what i sense to be cocaine on the dash of your general motors vehicle factory equipped with on-star, a registered/patented locater positioning and oft times drug enforcement assistance system, that has identified a church within 1,000ft of this alleged chopping of illegal narcotics i am therefore calling the police"

how does that work?

[ET Awful]

6. No, not exactly, if your OnStar system calls, and the operator is unable

to get you to respond, they assume that you were calling for help and are now in trouble and need assistance. Kind of like if you dial 911 and drop the phone, they don't just hang up and assume you're ok.

So, the operatod did what she was supposed to and called police to check and make sure the driver was okay. When the police showed up, the dude had a pile of blow. It's as simple as that.

Personally I wouldn't buy a GM product, ever, so I'll happily never have to deal with a Big Brother preinstalled in my vehicle.

[bridgit]

7. well i just think that's goofy, it may well be a fine notion on paper...

but i rather do not care for the idea of my activities being impinged upon by some over-the-horizon employee with the ability to intercede with unsolicited/unwanted services whatever they may be i may be legally bound to pay for one way or the other x(

[ET Awful]

10. Well, the owner of the vehicle initiates the call, not the OnStar folks

Like I said, kind of like calling 911. If you call and then don't respond when they answer, they try to make sure you're okay. Not all bad.

I'm just no fan of something in my car that's always trackable (then again, I have a cell phone, so it's kind of a moot point) :P

[bridgit]

12. without even meaning to profile, there's some things that may...

be implied = Cadillac Escalade, Ralph A. Gomez, 38...very popular ride as well with the hip hop crowd at least here in my town ultimately = what my dad used to tell me as a kid, "you need to be smart enough to operate the machine you think you're trying to"

it ain't all about the bling-bling, he should have read his owner's manuel :thumbsup:

[ET Awful]

15. The article doesn't mention whether he had 26-inch chrome wheels

or not :P

[bridgit]

17. EX-actly, re-read my orig post = "that doesn't make any sense..."

:P :P

[GirlinContempt]

14. It's all a clever plot

orchastrated by OnStar higher ups to get all their customers arrested or, uh, charged for services... whatever services you could be charged for. Muahahaha.

[bridgit]

16. oh and here she comes, my stale little morning biscuit....

:rofl: :pals: :hug: :grouphug: :loveya: :patriot: :kick: :donut:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

2. Possession within 1,000 feet of a church?

:wtf:

[bridgit]

3. jeez, i'm serious; shake down the congregation, plenty of just plain...

folks may be taking specious Rx just to get through the service :rofl:

[blackcatpgh]

4. I would never buy a car with OnStar

I'm too paranoid to justify this kind of "service."

[Starbucks Anarchist]

5. There was a DUer who summed up the commercials nicely:

"Buy OnStar, or this child will die." :rofl:

[GOPisEvil]

8. Why is possession near a church worse than possession anywhere else?

Schools, I can see, but churches? :wtf: We ARE a theocracy.

Oh, and while OnStar might come in handy occasionally, I don't think I'd ever subscribe. It's a bit too big brother for me. Don't get me started on their cloying, over-wrought commercials...

[bridgit]

9. there'ya go, i thought it was possession near a school...

:shrug:

[ET Awful]

11. Maybe it's a religious school.

Like a Southern Baptist Madras or something :P

[bridgit]

13. if it was a southern baptist sunday school...

he's going to get the chair!! :P

[AzDar]

18. But his SOUL will be with Jeebus!!! n/t

[bridgit]

19. and that's all that matters...

[4morewars]

20. Amen !

:bounce:

[skids]

23. Same reason as schools.

Both are filled with impressionable, psycologically vulnerable people who really can't hold their substances.

:evilgrin:

[jmowreader]

24. Have you ever been to some of those services?

If I was a congregant at someplace like Thomas Road Baptist or Westboro Baptist, I believe I would have to be...uhh...altered...to get through one of their services.

I helped bury this 300-pound retired mess sergeant when I was in the 101st Airborne. He was a fundamentalist, so naturally we had to go to the fundamentalist church to unload the casket containing the mess sergeant from the hearse, bring it in, put it on the little pedestal they had for it, then haul it back outside, load it back on the hearse, ride to the cemetery, unload it and put it on the casket hoist. This particular sect believed caissons were the tool of the devil, so we had to CARRY this motherfucker about 700 feet--and he was in a serious casket--it felt like it was lignum vitae veneer over granite. Very heavy. And I'm not kidding about the caisson/devil comment either--this preacher came out and gave us this little spiel about how the Lord said we were to be carried from this life, and that meant "by six men." Or, because it was a MI unit doing the carrying, four men and two women.

Anyway, back to the service...in two hours he managed to consign the entire burial party, half the congregation, the decedent's whole family, everyone in the state of Tennessee who didn't attend that specific church, and half of the rest of the world to hell--and he did this while he was praising the poor decedent.

If I would have known, I would have procured a wee pint of Everclear or something and brought it to the service. It would have made that sermon a LOT more fun!

[B3Nut]

21. That's almost poetic justice

What a great payback for buying an Escrapalade and being a coke-head! :rofl:

Todd in Beerbratistan :beer:

[Orsino]

22. This is anecdotal evidence, of course, but...

...I have to question the good sense of anyone who buys both cocaine and an Esky. Good golly, that's dumb!

[WCGreen]

25. Narcotics within a hundred feet of a church....

What the fuck kind of law is that....

Can't the rapture pimps compete with the pushers....